The Premiers meeting in the Delta Hotel was too much to resist as a venue for protesting the Ottawa East Pipeline, particularly making the point that the Elephant in the Room is climate change. Along with Ecology Ottawa, Council of Canadians, Greenpeace Canada and 350.org, we turned up with a large elephant and elephant signs. Bessa, Gale, Jo, Leslie Anne, Linda, Martha, Pat, Ria, and Terrie all braved the windy, cold day to hold our signs and sing two songs created just for the occassion: “There’s an elephant in the room” and “The elephant in the room.” The titles are similar, but the content is not.

We were asked to leave the washroom in the Delta Hotel, where we were donning our skirts and hats and rehearsing our songs about climate change being ignored by the Premiers meeting upstairs. We found police waiting to escort us outside. We felt pretty important and dangerous.